Motorcyclists and non-riders , I would like opinions on this story

[neoflex]

Originally Posted by jitzy

If you look at the video the marked car was right there also, he didn't come later he was right there so yes this jackass knew what he was doing. Like I said as for pulling the gun, if you run from the cops theres usually a reason. I would of had my firearm out in that situation too and like him holstered it when I saw I didn't need it out. We could all argue this till were blue in the face and get no where with it but I'm gonna end my stance on this with this, I wear a ballistic vest at work everyday, winter and summer alike and its not on me cause its cool or makes me look bad ass I wear it cause the fact of the matter is I need to. Every job I go to and every car stop I do has the potential to end badly and when one of those stops happens to end with a 100+ mph chase then yes the gun comes out.

I just watched the original footage again after reading your thread but if you watch it in it's entirety the guy is far from running from anything and I actually feel a little more sympathy for him. If you watch at the beginning he is moving with the flow of traffic than he gets on it and obviously does a wheelie which is a boneheaded move for a heavily congested I-95 but if you watch from the 1/2 way point to the end the guy is back to moving with the flow of traffic and actually gets passed by a clapped out looking Accord a couple times and even gets passed by an Acura TL a couple times right before he exits the Interstate so he clearly isn't running from anything. Supposedly the cops report said when he exited his vehicle the biker revved the bike as if he were going to run. If you catch the version I posted with audio, that is clearly BS and there was also no mention of the weapon being drawn in the report which I don't know if that is required or not so it may be a moot point.
Yes, if this guy didn't ride like a jackass he wouldn't have been pulled over but who here hasn't done something stupid without thinking and had it happen at the most inopportune time. I know last summer I was on a country back road with no cars and at an intersection as I made a right I got on it a little too hard and the front wheel came up off the ground about two feet for a short distance and there happened to be a cop coming the opposite direction a little distance away and I am sure he saw the headlight go up and back down.
Of course he banged a U-turn and pulled me over which he should have. I was calm and polite using sir and told him that I honestly didn't mean for the front wheel to come up as I knew that was why he pulled me. I told him I deserved a ticket but it was an honest mistake. He was cool about the whole thing ran my license and came back and told me he wasn't going to ticket me and just told me to be more careful and to not ride like an idiot. He was probably also surprised to see a 30+ year old on the bike and not some snot nosed teen but he didn't come out of his car gun drawn and I don't think he needed to nor did the cop in the video. Prob would have been more effective if he came out of the car with badge in hand rather than his weapon. Again, I am not a cop so I may be totally out of line but the guy definitely was not running. If he were the cop wouldn't have a snow balls chance in hell of catching him on that bike on the Interstate, and if he were I doubt he would have kept with the flow of traffic the majority of the video and even stop at the red light behind a line of cars. Not that I ever recommend it as a traffic violation easily becomes a felony but if a bike wants to outrun a car, I would say 95% of the time he is getting away. So the assessment that this guy was running is wrong. I think there are a lot of holes in the story on both sides and both sides are guilty of being wrong and raiding the guys house was clearly questionable at best.
These GoPro helmet cams are becoming very very popular and I have seen other traffic stops taped in videos before and the outcomes were never like this one or even resulted in a warrant and a house being raided. Just go to Youtube and do a search for GoPro and you'll come up with pages of videos. Most of the traffic stops that have been taped are pretty standard even when the bikers were caught being jackasses. I dunno I think both parties on this one need to reflect on their actions and make changes in the future.